


Countdown

by regenderate



Series: Tara is Alive, Well, and in Love with Fred Burkle [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-25 20:03:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13220190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regenderate/pseuds/regenderate
Summary: “New year, new you?”“Same me. New everything else.”--Tara and Fred, gal pals, spend New Year's Eve together. Will they kiss at midnight? The answer will shock you.Connor is included strictly in a "cute baby" capacity.





	Countdown

**Author's Note:**

> i missed buffy femslash secret santa and i keep kicking myself for it so this is my secret santa gift to myself and also to all of you who read fred/tara fanfiction (which should be everybody because they're so good)
> 
> technically this is part of my series "tara is alive, well, and in love with fred burkle" but like. that's just because i needed an excuse for fred and tara to be together on new year's. all you need to know is that when tara left willow she went to LA and started working with angel investiga(y)tions and it's been a couple months since then. (so, for those of you who care: it's set during s3 of angel/s6 of buffy)
> 
> on the other hand, if you are keeping track of the series: assume that after "preferences" there was some weirdness and confusion but it settled into fred and tara being totally platonic gal pals

It was New Year’s Eve, and Cordelia had pressured Angel into going to a party with her, Charles had gone to his old neighborhood to celebrate there, and Wesley had declared New Year’s to be a fools’ holiday. So it was only Fred and Tara who were sitting together in the hotel lobby with baby Connor in a crib, a tiny television screen flickering in front of them, watching the ball drop in New York a few hours before midnight actually reared its head in California, and then having some local channel as background noise as they played cards and rehashed the past year.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” Fred said. “Next year, I’m not letting some old horrible demony past get me down. I’m going right out there into the world.”

“You spent a long time in there,” Tara said. “It’s not going to magically be fixed.”

“Well, I’m going to fix it,” Fred said. “I’ve lost enough life already.”

“I’m going to work on finding myself,” Tara said. “And making friends who aren’t just Willow’s friends.”

“Hey, you made friends with us,” Fred said.

Tara smiled. “Yeah.”

“And it was Buffy who asked us to take you in, so technically you’re not here because of Willow.”

“Also true,” Tara agreed. “Maybe I need a new resolution.”

“That one’s all right,” Fred said. “Finding yourself.”

“Thanks.”

Connor started crying. Tara scooped him up and bounced him on her knee. 

“I think he’s hungry,” Fred said. “I’ll go get his milk.”

Tara nodded, still bouncing. Fred came back a moment later with a bottle, and Tara fed it to Connor, saying, “I wonder what he’ll do in the new year.”

“Probably cry a lot,” Fred said. “Maybe he’ll learn to sit up or something.”

“Do babies learn to sit up that young?” Tara asked.

“I don’t know,” Fred said. “I don’t really know a lot about babies.”

“He has a whole year,” Tara said. “That’s a long time. You can grow a lot in a year.”

“I sure did,” Fred said. “I got to eat a taco again, too.”

“Definitely a highlight,” Tara said. She put Connor’s empty bottle on the counter and gently lowered him into his crib, wrapping him in blankets. She glanced at the clock on the wall. “Ten minutes left. We don’t have champagne, do we?”

“I don’t think so,” Fred said. “Unless Angel is hiding something.”

“He might be,” Tara said, “but I kind of doubt it.”

“We can pretend,” Fred said, curling her fingers around a fake stem of a fake champagne glass.

Tara mirrored the gesture and pretended to take a sip. “It’s not the same,” she said.

“You’re right,” Fred agreed, dropping her hand.

“You’ve dropped the glass,” Tara teased. “It’s broken now.” 

Fred laughed. “That’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t like it all that much anyway.”

Tara made a point of setting down her fake glass on the counter. Fred stuck out her tongue.

Tara glanced at the television. There was a slideshow of things that had happened in the past year. She didn’t recognize most of them. “I wonder how they decide what to put on this,” she said.

“I don’t know,” Fred said. “There aren’t any apocalypses on there.”

“Good point,” Tara agreed. “I wonder how many times the world almost ended this year.”

“Lots, probably,” Fred said.

“Yeah,” Tara agreed. “Buffy died and everything.”

“There was the giant bugs,” Fred said.

“Giant bugs?”

“Probably not world-ending,” Fred admitted. “But I got ‘em!”

Tara laughed.

“I don’t know a lot of things that happened this year, though,” Fred said. “On account of my being in a demon dimension, and all that.”

“Well, you got out,” Tara said. “They should put that on the slideshow. You’re one of the first.”

Five minutes left, said the clock on the wall and the countdown on the television.

“Do you wish you’d gone somewhere for New Year’s?” Tara asked. “Other than here?”

“Nah,” Fred said. “I like it here with you. Do you wish you’d gone somewhere?”

Tara thought about it for a moment. “No,” she said. “I like it here with you, too.”

Fred beamed. 

“We should have remembered champagne, though,” Tara added.

“We can remember next year,” Fred said. “If you’re still around and everything.” 

“I’ll be around,” Tara said. “I don’t know where I’d go.”

“I figured you’d go back to Sunnydale eventually,” Fred said.

“No,” Tara said. “I’m finding myself, remember?”

“New year, new you?”

“Same me. New everything else.”

“That’s cool, too,” Fred said. “I’m going new year, new me, personally.”

Two minutes. 

“I like the you you are now,” Tara said.

“She’ll stick around,” Fred promised. “But new me is there, too.”

“That’s not a bad compromise,” Tara said.

They both sat in comfortable silence. Tara watched the television. The newscasters were gearing up for the big countdown-- there was a little over a minute left.

“Are you ready?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Fred said. “Are you?”

Tara nodded. 

Forty seconds. 

“I wonder how they set the clock,” Fred said. “How do we know that the countdown’s right? These TV people can’t know everything.”

“Sure they can,” Tara said. “TV people are omniscient.”

“Still,” Fred said. “Time is weird.”

Tara glanced at the television. “Still, the countdown’s starting.”

_ Ten. _

Fred looked at Tara, and Tara looked back at her.

_ Nine. _

They both glanced away, looking at the countdown clock on the tiny television.

_ Eight. _

They glanced back at each other.

_ Seven. _

“Happy New Year,” Fred said. She glanced around again.

_ Six _ .

“Happy New Year,” Tara answered.

_ Five _ .

“Um,” Fred said. “Did you--”

_ Four _ .

Tara smiled.

_ Three _ .

Fred blushed.

_ Two. _

“Well, it’s now or never, I guess,” she said.

_ One _ .

“Now,” Tara whispered.

_ Zero. _

And the kiss was perfect.

Fred could tell that 2002 was going to be a good year.


End file.
